The Worker, a migrant from Nepal, came to Israel in 2005 under a permit to work as a caregiver. She was illegally charged $6000 by a Nepali job broker. In order to raise this sum the worker took a loan from a private lender at a monthly interest rate of 3%. At the time of filing the petition, the worker did not yet manage to return the full sum of the loan she had taken.

For about two months the worker has been working for a disabled employer in accordance with her work permit until the employer's passing away. When she addressed the manpower agent who brought her to Israel, the agent promised her to take care of her placement at another disabled employer. After a few weeks the agent sent the worker to work at Mr. D.'s. Mr. D. was an Alzheimer's patient, and also used to drink frequently. The worker started working at Mr. D.'s without the manpower agent or the employer arranging her work permit.

One day close to the beginning of her work, Mr. D. got drunk and fell on the floor. The worker tried to lift him up, until she felt pain in the lower back. After this incident, the worker suffered severe back pains and could not work for about two months. The manpower company housed the petitioner in an apartment, and the petitioner received medical treatment which included injections and various pills to relieve pain.

Upon the recovery of the worker, she was found a new disabled employer. This employer had an excellent relationship with the worker and is interested in employing her. Yet, the Interior Ministry refuses to give the worker a work visa. Kav LaOved has therefore filed a petition to the court against The Interior Ministry.

Among other things the petition claims that The Interior Ministry failed to fulfill its basic duty of applying reasonable judgment. It did not ascribe any weight to the circumstances in which the worker lost her work permit, to the fact that its renewal was prevented due to circumstances beyond her control, and to her complete dependence on the manpower company for her license renewal. In addition, the Interior Ministry did not ascribe any weight to its duty to prefer the arrangement of the status of workers already in Israel over bringing new workers in their stead. Furthermore, the Ministry failed to consider the severe damage that the worker would suffer from terminating her work in Israel before repaying the loans she had taken to arrive in Israel, as well as the damage caused to the senior citizen whom the worker cares for.

The petition claimed that the worker turned into an illegal alien not on the basis of any willful action she took, but on the ground of the fact that her legal employer passed away. This arrangement, binding the legality of a migrant worker's stay in Israel and work for an employer who's name is listed in his work permit (the binding arrangement) was severely criticized by the Supreme Court, which ruled that this arrangement constitutes a "modern form of slavery", and that the state should formulate new employment arrangements for migrant workers. 

http://www.moital.gov.il/NR/exeres/454AD331-DF4-F-4BAE-B9A4-BC75C5A289F0.htm